Black Dog

Hey Gunner - You know we has a pot big enough for the dutchman - we may have to mash hime up a bit as its only a 10 gallon. All this talk about the youngster being clean - before long he won't be able to show his face. A good thing at that mind ya. Cookie

Damation take ye all - next year I will inform the family of our plans of raiding Beaufort - I will not miss the next one unless I be hanged or jailed. Gunner - mate - we needs to cook us a goat! Cookie

Barnaby!!! mate - your still buying rounds??? Ya know me bottle went empty so very recently (not sure how that happened). A fair shot o' black seal and I'd be happy for another day. To you and yours mate - Cookie

Bloody 'ell says I - now that ye be amongst us Mr. Wilde - ye has ner to do but keep the rum coming. We likes pretty speaches none here abouts. And welcome mate - again I say - welcome. Did you see if any of Kittyhawks rum rations were left? I had to leave before the fun was over the other week. Good raid though - very good raid. Barneby - we do need to discuss me favored rums - pyracy, pyrates choice, and morgans spiced. Ol' Cookie can promise a fire and food if at least one of this is about. welcome aboard Mate Cookie - blackbeardscrew

ooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOwwwwwwwwww shhhhhhh - hair of the dog what bit me - black roped bottle - anyone find me bottle? I always loose something - but something I will ner loose is my memories of one of the best BBF's I have 'er been part of. Thanks to all who came by for a visit and more especially - thanks to all those what helped ol' cookie out this weekend. Even if it was to just grab a piece of wood for me fire. I hope all enjoyed me work on the fire - never did see any mad dashes to the ER for medical help so I guess I didn't make anyone sick. aaaaaaanyway - it was great to see past friends and meet so many new ones. Looking forward to our next meeting. Hope its not a year away. thanks again to all, Cookie

Saw the question about rums close by. I spoke with folks at the store down the street (only 3-4 blocks down - a very easy walk). They are well aquianted with the Festival and expect to see pirates in the store. Seems they have had several heads up and I know for a fact they have 10 extra cases of The Black Seal on hand. Lots of the regular rums are about but not much else of the finer stocks. Seems the Old Dominion has yet to experience a rum epiphany. I believe it our duty to inform the current administration as to their poor showings of the choicer rums. They did say a few pirates was of help last year when some thug looking blokes were hanging around a bit too much. hmmm what a minute - thugs looking more threatening than pirates - somethings wrong with this picture. anyway - lets keep on our best worst behavior down there. They be nice folks who does what they can for us. Cookie

Aye Dutch - just got word - we will have our brick this week some time. I have to get details on when they will be available. Hope our stone cutter can do something on short notice. Cookie

Dutch, Gosnold is run by Hampton as part of their parks and rec stuff. The 2 drawbacks to the park are its trailers of RV's only and there are no reservations. The bath house and laundrey were nice. It was a nice cheap place to stay - very quite. It is only 3-4 miles from Mill Point Park - about 15 minutes or less. Cookie

Aye Dutch - saw that one. I have some books with all sorts of stuff on the topic. Most of the printed material I have gives detail on what they had after our period but ask this question - how much did food prep and preservation change over the next 20 - 30 years after the GAOP. Not much. They added iron stoves - may have been about it. As to the rack for the barrel - an iron rack to hold the wood/ fire off the bottom of the barrel - reduces the contact of fire to dropped coals and ashes. The hottest part of the fire stays off any other surface. Essentially an iron box within the barrel. I old legged frying pan may work well for this - trying to remember if we have one in the chest. Cookie

Aye Dutch - ye be fergetting the cheapy park I told ya about a while back. I did a copy/paste here with the info. ***** Shhhh - tis a secret, For anyone who is attending the Fest, pyrate or not - Gosnold Park is a great small campground - but only if you have a trailer, rv, or popup. Gosnold Park is about 3-4 miles from the fest. I stayed there 2 fests ago. Very nice - clean - cheap @ $10 bucks a night. The only draw back - no tents allowed. OK - well - there are 2 draw backs - they don't take reservations - its first come first serve and for trailers / rv's only. There were still over 2/3's of the camp empty when I was there. http://www.freecampgrounds.com/detail.aspx?id=547 ****** Now Dutch - tell ol' Cookie about this room - its at the RAD?? Cookie

Aye Dutch - Copper and rivets would be good. I don't know if the material would be thick enough but we can look it over. We have to be cautious of any coating on the copper too. I am wanting a simple quick build on this - more like what would have been done. Its the brick, sand, and salt that will make this work. Now if you see a round wood rack for the barrel - that would be a real find. Just hope we get the brick from Williamsburg on time. Cookie

Allo mates - Me thinks we has a working fire barrel - box of sorts. Our friends in Jamestown have educated me on an old design that was oft thrown together on the quick. 1/2 barrel - lined with firebrick from the center of the brick kiln. I am waiting on a delivery from Williamsburg at this moment of real kiln brick. Drop in a few inches of salt or more brick - a layer of sand and you have it. I was going to add horse shoes as handles to move it about and secure it in a blow. I thought useing horse shoes was about right - since you always hear of finding horse shoes in the bottom of many a salt "beef" barrel. I am hoping to have this finished for Blackbeard fest and have it for use to help with the cooking. hope to see ye there - Cookie

Well Blackdog...if you're gonna serve dog...I perfer Terrier...not so stringy like Schnauzer! Allo Cheeky Prefer chocolate lab meself - hehe - hope peta is listening - they have no sense of humor Cookie

Ahoy mates - someone asked if we were going to do any seafood chowders. I think we had scrapped a enough barnicals off the hull the last haul out to manage something. Might have a bit of a crunch to it though. Hmmm - barnicles - anyone know a period recipe for barnicles??? One more thing - visiting pirates - please feel free to bring down the family pet - we need to have something to test our new spit out with. I don't care - dog or cat - maybe even a hampster to two. lol - oooooook - so it might not be that bad - buuuutt. We do have plans well underway and are putting the finishing touches on everything. I plan on posting ingrediatants for each pot at the serving tables. hopefully we won't need any stomach pumps this year Cookie - ships cook - blackbeardscrew

Capt'n Sterling, I saw the pm and thank ye much. Looking forward to corrupting your cooks - tell them to bring their recipes. I will be in camp by Thursday - looking forward to meeting everyone. Yer 'umble servant, Cookie

Cap'n Sterling, Let'em know I am easy to work with - hehehe - at least till I get into the rum. As long as things are going along well - I do try to stay out till after the dinner is complete. Cookie

Ahoy ye Cooks coming to the fest - seems we had a few last minute changes and may need a bit o'help this time through. I have a plan in the works to feed all for the period dinner on Saturday. We are actually doing all the cooking in camp - or almost all of it. If I understand things correctly we will be serving on dry land. I am hoping to have most of the real work completed by breakfast on Saturday morning and really need folks to tend the fires and stir the pots to keep the victuals from burning. I am hoping we will have enough cooks / fire tenders to make short shifts for all who can help. At this point I believe we have all the pots we will need but I am waiting to hear from one last source. The main courses are pretty much set. I am working on getting a few vegitarian items as there are a few of THOSE amoungst our lot. Folks - if you know of food allergies I need to know - you never know what I am dropping into the pot. Please contact me so I can get a head count of who can help - I need for this to be a commited group because that frees folks up to be part of the programs. Contact me here or send me a message / email as you like. Willie the rumrunner aka Cookie - ships cook for Blackbeard's Crew

Ahoy Mates, The pictures of the Dove's hearth is great. I had heard that large cauldrens were used but had no idea they were as large nor as well made. I keep hoping to find something that would have been used on a smaller vessel than the massive stone and brick hearths I have seen pictures of. Open coastel vessels would have still had some way to cook. I would think small traders running up and down the Chesapeke would be a point to research. The true ocean going ships could deal with the size and weight of the large brick hearth. Something in the 30- 40 foot range would have no room for anything but a smallish hearth - compact and as light of material as possible. I am making guesses on this hoping I can find some documentation for the theory. I know of one piece on the introduction of iron hearths around 1728. The design was very simple and meant for the smaller support vessels of the line to cut the burden of the masonary hearths. I would think there were other earlier iron stoves but have yet to find the documentation. Thanks to all who have helped in this research - I am sure I will get more answers as time goes. Cookie

Aye Gunner - we do have to watch Dutch for drooling these days. These young dogs need a bit more training they do. If'n we has a good raid - aaa errr - trading venture between now and then I may be looking for a blunderbuss - eyes not what they used to be. Leave the sharpshooting to Headshot Jones - one of our new recruits. Gunner - bring your recipes with you Mate - I am hoping to steal some new ideas to torture the crew with. mashed nips - cut up the nips, boil them till soft with bacon/salt pork in the water, mash'm with butter, salt, pepper, if ashore add cream nicked from the local dairyman - stay away from big nips - they get tough and bitter try to stay warm - its supposed to hit 17 here tonight - it was around 60 earlier today have a happy, Cookie

Ahoy Mates - looks like a fine stove has been found while I was sleeping. Excellent pic of the Dove's stove. I did not remember the number of brick I see in the picture though. Thought it was smaller - metal lined with brick around the floor in the bottom. Tis a shame I had rum in me hand and not a camera. If anyone knows how I can directly contact the Dove crew or officers - please contact me. Cookie

Aye Blackjohn, I do remember the crew saying that was one of the reasons they used the firebox. I did ask if there was any documentation as to it's use aboard ships. The lad was unsure as to what documentation they had but he felt there was something. That is what I am looking for. Perhaps what I am looking for was not really used. I do have to wonder what smaller coastal vessles would use. Since you have seen the Dove's firebox - you can see how its contruction would do well in a small trading ship running up and down the Chesapeke. Below is what I have from the report on the vessel Avondster. The wooden construction was sheathed with metal on the inside for fire protection. Copper was generally used, but there are references to tin and even lead being used as sheathing. Journals from early seventeenth-century shopkeepers indicate that two different thicknesses of copper were used, probably thinner for the walls and thicker for the floors. The same journals account for the sheathing of a galley with old lead(6). On the Avondster, lead sheathing was used, and crumpled lead sheets protrude from the seabed today. The floors and parts of the walls of a galley were laid with bricks. Avondster 1659 from the Maritime Lanka: maritime archaeology & history of Sri Lanka I am hoping to find something other than the large heavy brick or stone firepits used on the large vessels. The earliest mention I have seen for iron stoves was something about the British Navy began looking into the iron stoves around 1728. I am guessing they existed before then but I have not found any documentation on them as of yet. This is going to be fun, Cookie - blackbeardscrew

Mates - I did find out the name of the vessel I saw the firebox on. The Maryland Dove. I have been looking for contact information at this point - if anyone knows the folks involved in that fine ship - please give me a heads up. If anyone has more documentation as to the use of wooden framed fireboxes aboard ship - please feel free to add it. hmmmm - time to fix some victuals, Cookie

Ahoy Gunner, Will ye be joining us this year? Would you be setting up your booth again? I am hoping at our next meeting we will get more details about camp set up. I do know things will be laid out differently than last year. As for the recipe - what I have is with corned beef, salt pork, onions, turnips, carrots I think??, and various spices including juniper berries. It starts out all boiled together then minced and turned into hash. The last thing added mentioned fried eggs on top. I heard you know a bit about roasting whole goats - we need to talk. Cookie

Now for some fun - how many cooks are coming? I be cook - food poisoner - for Blackbeard's Crew, if you will. I hope we get to play this year as Sunday was to be our demo day last year - damn storm. Anyway - for anyone who will be there and is going to be cooking at our camp fire - let me hear from you. I am hoping to get some things in place to help make certain things are kept clean and easy this year. I have been told the location and set up of the fire pit will be much different this year - hope to see the plans soon meself I do. I need to get an idea how much wood to gather! Anyone have an accurate recipe for labscouse? see everyone there, Cookie aka Willie the rumrunner

Ahoy Dutch, Gosnolds Park is (according to yahoo maps) 3.51 miles from Mill Point Park. The address is 901 E. Little Back River Road Hampton, Va. The link I put in the first note has the information about it. Ya'll have a great day, Cookie